A True Happily Ever After
by LuckyBlackCat
Summary: My take on what happens to the characters after the series finale. BEWARE, LOTS OF SPOILERS! Each chapter based around a different character. What happened with Lily & Vivian? Ned's dad? Chuck's dad? Emerson's daughter? Some of what I will include.
1. Ned

**A\N After the final episode of series two, I had a whole load of questions about what would happen next. I need closure, so I decided to close it myself. Here's how this fic will work- for each character, I'll write what I think happened to them after Ned and Chuck go to see Lily and Vivian. I'll attempt to tie up any loose ends- I hope you enjoy this and will be nice enough to review. The 1st chapter is Ned**. **The first part of this chapter is kind of a recap, and after that my original story starts. **

**Disclaimer: If it was mine, it wouldn't be cancelled :(**

As we all know, after the death of his mother and Chuck's father, Young Ned was shipped off to the Longborough School for Boys. At this time, Ned was sure that he would die a lonely ,magic fingered freak, with only Digby for company. But this boy grew up to become the Pie Maker, and the Pie Maker was far from alone.

The first person to befriend Ned was none other than one Olive Snook,next door neighbour, whom he hired as a waitress at his Pie Hole. Olive was a chirpy, friendly sort and they had a close friendship. He didn't notice Olive wanted more than friendship, he only noticed that she was a good friend, both to him and to Digby.

The first person to keep Ned's magic secret was one Emerson Cod, private investigator. Spotting Ned's unusual talent for waking the dead, Ned joined Emerson's P.I agency, solving murders by simply waking up the dead body and asking who killed them and then collecting the reward money. The conversation that took place at their first meeting went something like this.

"I just seen a dead man touch you and come back to life, then you touched him and he died again, you wanna explain that to me?" Emerson growled.

"No, no! It wasn't what it looked like! Waking dead people isn't possible, it'd be like un frying an egg that's already fried which is impossible! I didn't do anything! Please don't arrest me and cut me up to see how I work, I'll give you anything, I'll do anything-" Ned gabbled frantically.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down! You own this dump?"

"It is _not_ a dump! It's the Pie Hole! My Pie Hole! I make pies. I'm a...a...pie maker!"

"Sure you are, but you ain't gonna make squat bakin pies all day. I gotta little proposition. I keep your secret if you help me with my P.I business. Solving crimes would be a whole lot easier if I could say, wake up the victims and ask them how they died. We collect the reward money, I give you a cut of the profits and everyone's happy. What do you say?"

"Well, I...I'll think about it."

Ned thought about it and in the end agreed...which led to the fateful day he agreed to wake up lonely tourist Charlotte Charles.

He hadn't planned to keep her alive but couldn't bring himself to kill her once again. As he said to his beloved Chuck, "I thought my world would be a better place if you were in it."

And from then on, things got complicated

There was the small matter of a grumpy Emerson Cod who took a while to warm to his new alive-again girlfriend. And then there was Olive, who was not only green in her name and clothes, but green with jealousy. And not even Chuck was completely happy, as Ned had told her she could never again talk to her aunts.

This was a lie, but at the time Ned didn't know it.

Things grew even more complicated when Dwight Dixon began sniffing around and then Chuck persuaded him to re-alive her dad whom he had accidentally killed, to find out what Dwight was up to. Charles Charles instantly disliked the Pie Maker and consequently vanished into the night with Ned's car when Chuck chose to stay with Ned.

Whilst Dwight Dixon was looking for Ned's father, Ned found his half brothers, Maurice and Ralston. A pair of young magicians still mourning the loss of their father and longing for a family, they welcomed Ned as their brother with open arms.

At this moment, Ned is 29 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 15 hours and 56 minutes old.

"There are exactly 5 days, 6 hours and 47 minutes until Chuck gets back," he informed Emerson Cod, who was enjoying his daily slice of pie.

Emerson rolled his eyes. In his opinion, Ned needed to stop worrying about Dead Girl, and instead worry about the case they were supposed to be working on.

"I really want to call her. It's like that desire you have when you're a child to open sealed envelopes, even though you know you're going to get into trouble. There are 2 hours and 32 minutes until she calls me."

Emerson grunted, irritated.

"No, you should not damn well call her! She needs to spend time with her aunts, supporting then on their tour and you need to spend time working with me on who the hell killed Frieda Frerri."

"Oh...now there are only 2 hours and 29 minutes left until she calls me."

"Will you shut up? I don't count the minutes it takes Simone to call me!"

"No, but you're always listening for the clickety click of her fingers."

"I am not!"

Ned snorted. He was correct in thinking that Emerson Cod was lying.

"I have to go and see Maurice and Ralston tonight. It's a getting-to-know you evening where we...get to know each other. I didn't think I'd ever get to like Maurice and Ralston...but I do. I'm taking them pie. Maurice likes kiwi. Ralston likes strawberry."

"But we're goin to that morgue first, right?"

"Yeah, we should probably go now. Let's see what Frieda Frerri has to say."

Frieda Frerri was killed with an apple. It had a particular type of poison in it that causes your blood to dissolve into air and your lips and tongue to rot.

Luckily this did not hinder her ability to speak. Her face was a startling contrast of white skin and black mouth. She looked like a vampire. Ned set his watch and tapped her.

"Hello," she said, sitting up. "I had the weirdest hallucination that I was killed by a poisoned apple."

"Sorry, you're dead, you have one minute to tell us who killed you and give us any last requests."

"I'M _DEAD?_! I can't be This must be a mistake!"

"Keep your voice down! And yeah, you're dead." Ned hissed.

Frieda Freeri started to cry.

"I don't wanna be dead!" she sobbed.

"Just tell us who killed you already!" Emerson yelled impatiently.

"Shhhh!" Ned hushed him.

"I think it might've been my stepdad...he doesn't like me and he's always nagging me to eat fruit and stuff."

"O.K, times up!" Ned reached out and re deaded the unfortunate Frieda.

On their way out, the coroner stopped Emerson to tell him the facts as he saw them.

"You know, shouting at them dead bodies ain't gonna help you find the murderer."

"No, but it makes me feel better," Emerson answered while Ned glared at him.

"Mmmmm-hmmmm," said the coroner suspiciously.

Ned pushed all thoughts of Frieda Frerri away as he prepared the pies for his little half brothers. They didn't exactly know about his special talent, and now seemed a good time to tell them. They deserved to know and Ned was sick of secrets. If he didn't explain his magic finger, how was he going to explain the rest of his life? However, he was extremely scared of their reactions.

"Hey, Maurice and Ralston, there's something I didn't tell you. I help Emerson by bringing dead people back to life to solve their murders. But I only let them talk for a minute before touching them again to kill them to prevent other stuff from dying. Oh, and you know Chuck? She should be dead but I swapped her life for Lawrence Schatz's life and..."

Ned stopped practicing his explanation with a sigh.

"I sound like a mad man. Mad Ned. What am I thinking? I can't tell them," he told Digby.

Digby whined sympathetically.

Ned packed the pies and set off. He was borrowing Emerson's truck, as Charles Charles had taken off in his car and he couldn't yet afford another one.

Maurice and Ralston answered the door with a stunned expression.

"It's me, Ned!" Ned announced, grinning nervously. "You remembered I was coming, right?" he checked, reading their expressions.

"Yeah, but we have an...unexpected visitor," Maurice explained.

"Who?" Ned asked.

"Dad," said Ralston.

"WHAT!?" Ned shrieked. "Please tell me this is a really bad joke, like at school when you put a pin on someone's chair, and it's funny to watch, but really not funny for the guy who went and sat on it."

"Who is it, boys?" called a male voice.

Ned was overcome with the desperate desire to run away, for he did not wish to see this father who had broken his promise to come back and abandoned Ned at the Longborough School For Boys. One look at the faces of Maurice and Ralston told him they didn't know what to do either. Then he thought about what Chuck would do, and he knew she would never leave Maurice and Ralston to try and make sense of this alone. He also realised that when he got the chance, he must tell his brothers about his magic finger. If Lily and Vivian Charles knew, it was unfair for them to not know. They were family.

"I suppose I'd better come in," Ned told them.

**A/N Reviews appreciated! I hope all the details are correct- Maurice and Ralston don't know about Ned's magic finger, right? Also, don't worry this cliffhanger will be resolved in the next chapter. Which will be Chuck's. **


	2. Chuck

**A\N Here's the second chapter! Don't worry, there'll be more about the last chapter's cliffie further into this chapter! It will be continued! This chapter focuses on Chuck, the next one will focus on Emerson. Please enjoy and reviews would be a great bonus, I had a lot of fun writing this! **

**Disclaimer: See this on Pushing Daisies? No? So I don't own it. **

Charlotte Charles first life began in a nunnery, where her mother "Aunt" Lily had fled to give birth to her. It ended on a cruise ship with her murder. Her second life began in a way that was much more complicated, which shouldn't have been possible considering her father was supposed to be her mother's sister's fiancée.

The second life was appreciated much more than the first. Ned, her childhood sweetheart, the one who nicknamed her Chuck, had come to save her from the darkness of death with his unusual gift. First touch life, second touch death. If a dead thing stayed alive for more than one minute, something else had to die. Chuck soon learnt that it was not only a gift but also a curse. The curse meant that she and Ned could never touch. Thus plastic wrap became an important object in her second life.

She wanted her second life to become bright and shiny and perfect. But as it is in every life, things do not always go your way. There was the matter of her father's murder and the fact that Ned's gift had been his killer. She had convinced Ned that, after Dwight Dixon was on the verge of discovering her, the best thing to do was to pay a visit to dead dad Charles Charles, wake him and ask him if they were in danger. She could not bring herself to say goodbye to him again, and so she kept him alive. But that meant someone else had to die, and that someone turned out to be none other than one Dwight Dixon.

A mess it certainly was. Her father ended up running away after she chose to stay with Ned the pie maker, rather than join him on his adventures. Chuck was devastated but life went on.

One of the next hardest things about her second life was that she had to convince a stubborn private investigator she was a valuable asset to the team. You will know him as Emerson Cod. Then there was Olive Snook, whose crush on her boyfriend was legendary, as well as being a source of pain for both her and Olive. There was the permanent added danger of someone recognising her as Lonely Tourist Charlotte Charles, a title she hated with a passion.

But among all this was the most important, life changing revelation. Her mother was alive and was in fact her "Aunt" Lily. Her list of questions grew longer every day and while she appreciated the efforts of Ned and Olive, who tried to help her answer the questions one wonderful night, she could not possibly have asked them all.

At this very moment, a girl named Chuck is experiencing one of the happiest times of both her lives, watching her mother Lily and her aunt Vivian perform as the Darling Mermaid Darlings. The night she revealed herself to be alive once again is a blur: she remembers standing at the door with Ned and the flowers. The rest of the evening is filled with sobs and surprise and arguments and explanations and a very nervous Ned.

That evening culminated in this: a chance to join her aunt and mother on their comeback tour so they could get to know each other once again. Ned had wanted to join her, but she urged him to stay at the Pie Hole. She needed this time with Lily and Vivian alone.

Tonight was their last show. Tomorrow she would fly home back to Ned. With a mother and aunt who loved her. Everything she could ever want except...Dad.

Little did she know that amongst the crowds sat a man wearing dark glasses , as well as a hat and a mask, covering a very bad case of _corpse face_.

"Charlotte!" beamed Lily, changed out of her underwater costume and into a tight red dress for the wrap up party. Lily hadn't beamed in years and it made Vivian uneasy.

"I feel uneasy," Vivian piped up. "I keep thinking you're drunk because you've never properly smiled that much for such a long time."

Things between the sisters had gradually grown less strained due to the presence of their beloved Charlotte. Vivian had accepted that Lily's affair with her fiancée had happened a long time ago and more important things were happening at this moment in time.

"Oh, come one, give me a break. I wasn't always a miserable wretch!"

"When have you ever been truly happy in all the years we lived together?"

"When...when Olive brought us pie. Pie made me happy," Lily tries lamely.

"Yes, I did grow fond of Olive and her pies," Vivian smiles, keen to be at peace with her sister.

The truth in this comes from the fact that Chuck baked mood enhancers into their pies. Something she was not planning on revealing anytime soon. When she was younger she had once threatened them with putting anti-depressants into their food, and from then on Lily was suspicious of everything she cooked. She would not make the same mistake again. Second life, second chance.

"I'm glad someone brought you pies when I wasn't there to look after you," Chuck sighed cheerily.

"Pfft," said Lily. "I'm your mother, I look after you. Not the other way round," she insisted.

The flight back to Couers de Couers was uneventful, apart from an unfortunate incident involving Lily, her eye patch, and a five year old with a pirate phobia.

When Chuck returned to the Pie Hole, Ned was sitting alone at their usual table, petting Digby with his petting stick.

"Hey! I'm back!" she yelled.

"Hello. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now as 5 days ago I met my dad," Ned gabbled out, needing to talk to someone badly.

Chuck's eyes widened for she knew Ned's feelings towards his father were less than friendly.

"What?! What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? What's going on now?"

The facts were these.

"I suppose I'd better come in," Ned had told half brothers Maurice and Ralston.

Inside, a father was waiting in the shadows.

"Ned!" he exclaimed. "It's been a while!"

A while was exactly 20 years since Ned had been dumped at the Longborough school for boys and "a while" did not seem the correct way to put it.

"You...you abandoned me and then you abandoned Maurice and Ralston..." the brothers stood either side of Ned. "We are people, you know, and not like stray animals you can just abandon without a second thought because what kind of person would even do that? What do you want anyway after all these years?"

"Ned," the voice spoke. "I have something I need to tell all of you. Please let me explain."

"You don't deserve the chance to explain! You don't know what it was like at that horrible school and then one Halloween I came and saw you with your new family and you just discarded me as if I were _rubbish_!"

Ned's anger was releasing words and feelings from his mouth that he would never normally think to say.

"Ned. The reason I left was because we could never ever touch...and if we did, you'd be dead,"

Ned's heart slowed and almost stopped as he realised that Chuck, Digby and Chuck's dad were not the only alive agains...so was he.

Back in the present, Chuck gasped.

"So, that means that...you inherited your gift from your dad...how come you died in the first place?" Chuck's head was only just holding the new flood of information.

"I don't know, because at that point I turned round, ran out, got in Emerson's truck and broke 19 road regulations just to get back here and pretend it never happened. I don't have a dad with a magic finger, that's just not possible. And I'm alive, if my dad re-alived me when I was a little boy...well I'm not a little boy anymore. I've aged."

"Well...there's no proof alive agains don't age," Chuck pointed out. "You really need to talk to your dad again...ask your sea of questions."

"Oh, my dad has come here looking for me...I hid in the kitchen and got Kirsten to tell him I was out. Nine times."

Kirsten was the new waitress Ned had hired after Olive left to open The Intrepid Cow.

"Ned!" Chuck exclaimed in frustration. "Have you told Emerson about this!"

"No. Because it can't have really happened. I'm just going crazy and if I talk to you about my crazy thoughts then I feel a little less crazy. And I'm stress baking in my head, just so you know."

"Mmm. And how much real stress baking have you done?" Chuck asked, getting up to check the kitchen.

There are pies on every single flat surface. Some are in boxes, some are not. They are crammed together and on top of each other, at least 3 dozen are marked "For Olive".

"Why would Olive want all those pies?" Chuck called. "Actually, why would anyone want all those pies?"

"I thought Olive might be missing the pie since she left...I don't need to make anymore pies for about 3 weeks. Help yourself!" Ned called back.

Chuck rolled her eyes and planned a visit to Maurice and Ralston to track down Ned's dad. If Ned wasn't going to ask his sea of questions, then she was certainly going to ask hers. Perhaps she would enlist the help of one Emerson Cod, private investigator.


	3. Emerson

**A/N Wow, this story is a real challenge to write! Anyway in this chap Emerson...well, just read it! Also starring Ned's dad who I haven't named. Should I? Anyway, a BIG THANK YOU to WeepingAngel123 and contemptuous appeal who have reviewed both chapters! And you too, Techno Coloured! Oh, and I feel bad for neglecting Maurice and Ralston but I don't want to make it MORE complex! O.K, I'll shut up now. Read and review please!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own it. I am merely an obsessed (sp?) fan.**

Young Emerson was a private investigator from an early age. It was all he knew and all he ever wanted to know. He had an adventurous childhood with his mother, Ms. Calista Cod. He eventually set up his own private investigating firm so he wouldn't have to share the profits from his crime solving.

Along the way, Emerson Cod somehow ended up in the clutches of one Lila Robinson who then had their child, Penny Cod. Lila then ran away, taking Penny with her, leaving Emerson broken hearted and searching.

A few years later, Emerson found the Pie Maker Ned, a man who could touch dead things and bring them back to life. They formed a partnership where Ned simply woke up the murder victims and Emerson asked them how they died. Then they would collect the reward and Emerson would spend it on knitting needles, wool, pies and Chinese takeaways.

Much to Emerson's disgust, this partnership expanded to include Dead Girl, one Charlotte Charles back from the dead. Emerson didn't like sharing, especially not his money. But gradually he found himself growing to like Dead Girl, even though she and the Pie Maker were so sickeningly sweet he often felt the desire to throw up. This friendship led to him getting to know Olive Snook, the Pie Hole waitress who became his Itty Bitty.

But though the drama of Ned, Chuck, Olive and their various problems kept him distracted, he still longed to find his missing daughter. So he created Lil Gumshoe, a popup book designed to lead his daughter to him. The book eventually got published and was a bestseller, making Emerson Cod richer than ever. Sadly, he was looking for something money couldn't buy.

Until one day, when he had just about given up hope, there was a knock at the door and a tiny, shy voice.

"Excuse me; I'm looking for a Mr. Emerson Cod..."

"Yeah, that's me..." he yelled gruffly. "Come in."

He knew it could be anyone, anyone at all. Just because the voice was that of a little girl, just because she was holding a copy of his book, just because she looked a lot like him with a bit of Lila and Calista...

IT'S HER! His mind shrieked the words, but Emerson couldn't find any to say out loud. The little girl stared at him with big brown eyes. And he stared back.

"Penny?" he breathed eventually.

"Mr. Cod, are you my daddy?" she asked, disbelief on her face.

"Yes, Penny. I'm your daddy," the words tasted wonderful in Emerson's mouth.

"Mommy said you made this book for me! I loved it the moment she gave it to me and I wanted to find you. Is being a private investigator as cool as being a con lady?"

"Well, being a private investigator is pretty cool as you get to solve crimes, get justice and most importantly lots of money. Plus, you don't have to keep running away from the police."

Penny smiled at him. It is a smile Emerson will remember forever. The first him his daughter smiled at him.

"I can run really fast now," Penny beamed proudly.

"I'll bet you can. Where's your mommy?"

"She gave me this letter for you..."

Penny handed him a slip of paper covered in her mother's scrawl. The contents were as follows:

Dear Emerson,

I'm working on a long con and it's going to get a little dangerous so I don't want Penny involved. I'm leaving her in your care for a little while. All I've heard from her these past damn months is "When can I meet my daddy? My daddy sounds really cool, can I meet him soon?" So, this is your chance to get to know her. Don't waste a second, and certainly don't waste a second trying to work out where I am and what I'm up to. I'll see you when I see you. Lila.

"So is it O.K if I stay with you for a little while?" Penny bubbled excitedly.

"Yeah, of course," Emerson said hastily.

But in his mind he was panicking. Emerson Cod didn't know how to be a father, and he was going to have to learn fast. He was overwhelmed to say the least.

Also panicking was Charlotte Charles, who had rushed from the Pie Hole to Emerson's office to beg for help in confronting Ned's dad.

"What do you say we go out and have some pie with some good friends of mine?" Emerson asked Penny. She was about to reply when a whirlwind named Chuck blew in the door.

"Emerson, you have to help me! Ned's dad is back and Ned's an alive again, his dad has a magic finger, I don't know what to do and...is this a bad time?"

"This is a VERY bad time, Dead Girl!" In a softer voice he added "This is Penny. My daughter. Penny, this is Charlotte Charles a friend of mine."

"Hi Penny!" Chuck said brightly, surprised. "You can call me Chuck! It's nice to finally meet you!"

"Why did daddy call you 'Dead Girl'? And who's Ned and what's a magic finger?"

Chuck looked at Emerson for help. He was smiling proudly. His Lil Gumshoe was a chip off the old block. She certainly knew how to ask the right questions.

"Let's go and get some pie," he said, while Chuck stared.

Penny soon found herself in the care of Ned, the Pie Maker.

"Would you... like some pie?" Ned asked awkwardly.

"I don't really like pie," Penny informed him sweetly.

"You'll like my pies," Ned tried to reassure her.

"Do you have any that are chocolate flavoured?" she asked innocently.

"Well...I'm sure I could come up with something. But wouldn't you at least like to try a cup pie? They have honey baked into the crust..."

While Ned and Penny got to know each other, Chuck and Emerson were heading for the home of Maurice and Ralston, hoping to liberate some of the secrets within.

"Do you have a gun?" Chuck asked Emerson.

"You ain't shootin Ned's father!"

"We don't know what he's like. It could get nasty."

"You bet it's gonna get nasty! He abandoned our friend at the high school from hell, cleared off and now he's back waving his magic finger about! Bet you didn't ask him to prove he had it in the first place!"

The truck swerved up the drive to the house of Maurice and Ralston. Chuck and Emerson mentally prepared themselves for the worst as they knocked at the door.

"Emerson Cod. Private investigator!" the twins stood at the door together.

"We've come to see Ned's father," Emerson told them.

"Dad!" the twins yelled simultaneously. For a minute Chuck felt her heart sing as she thought of her Lily and Vivian doing the same thing together as the Darling Mermaid Darlings. The singing stopped when a voice called

"Is it Ned?"

Emerson barged into the house, determined to find the owner of the culprit. Sitting calmly in an armchair was a man who looked a bit like Ned, wearing a hat and sipping a cup of coffee.

"Are you Ned's father?" Emerson demanded.

"Yes. And you're Emerson Cod, private investigator. And with you is Lonely Tourist Charlotte Charles, an alive again. I've been here and watching my son for quite some time."

Chuck gaped.

"Right," Emerson stated, ready to get down to business. "Question number 1, prove to us you got the magic finger."

He threw a rotten piece of fruit pinched from Ned's kitchen at him. He caught it and it instantly bloomed into a tasty looking strawberry. And if Chuck stared at him with her eyes half open, it almost looked like Ned standing there. Maurice and Ralston watched wide eyed- they'd heard all the explanations, all the excuses and after a period of being angry with their father, they had welcomed him back into their lives.

"O.K. That would be a yes. Question number 2: how the hell did Ned end up dead in the first place?"

"These are the facts..." Ned's father stated.

When Ned was exactly 4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days and 27 minutes old, Ned was sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden his heart stopped. It was a cot death, a sad but natural way to die. But Ned's father had no intention of letting Ned stay dead. Unknown to Ned's mother, Ned's father had an unusual gift. It was given to him by no-one in particular, and after accidentally killing numerous pets and then bringing them back to life and watching other pets die, Ned's father certainly knew the rules. But just as Ned couldn't help bringing back Chuck and Chuck couldn't help bringing back her father, Ned's father couldn't help bringing back Ned. And so Ned became an alive again, but his father could never touch him or else he would die. This would put a strain on their father-son relationship forever.

Chuck's eyes filled with tears for the Pie Maker and his family. Her anger faded and she felt only pity for the man she loved. But she had the feeling that Ned's anger was going to take a lot longer to fade.

"Question number three: why have you come back now?"

"To protect the family secret. How is old Charlie, by the way Charlotte? I know you had Ned bring him back from the grave, I watched you. And I watched Dwight Dixon. I was about to stop Dwight from shooting you both when he fell back, dead from the cosmic exchange. You know, our gift takes life from one living thing and gives it to another, don't you?"

"Dwight Dixon..." Chuck begins.

"A story for another day," Ned's father tells her. "Anymore questions?"

"You know you need to tell Ned all this, right?" Emerson growled.

"I keep coming to the Pie Hole, but he's never there,"

Emerson snorted. "Come tomorrow, 2 o clock. He'll be there. Right, I best be getting back to my daughter. I've asked my questions. Coming Dead Girl?"

"Yeah, I...I'll meet you outside in a couple of minutes."

Chuck had not finished asking her sea of questions. Maurice and Ralston had disappeared, rather overwhelmed. They had no idea about the Dwight Dixon fiasco.

"Sir...I...it's just, to bring Ned back to life, wouldn't another baby have had to die?"

"That's right, sweetheart."

"Who...who died?"

"This couple up the road had a little girl. She died. It was all very sad and I felt guilty...but I love my son. Even if I haven't showed it..."

Chuck nodded. "I understand. I'll see you tomorrow."

There was a question gnawing away at Chuck- why had Dwight Dixon come looking for him and her father? But it was a "story for another day", and she already had a Pacific Ocean of information for her brain to absorb.

Emerson Cod was bewildered, confused and felt a migraine approaching. He just wanted to go back to his office and put the finishing touches to his latest knitted wallet. Then he remembered Penny and a wave of giddy joy almost knocked him off his feet...

Later at his apartment, Penny sat with her rucksack amongst the old copies of Knitwit Magazine and the new knitted cushions Emerson had knitted a few weeks back.

"Do you ...want to order some Chinese food?" Emerson smiled nervously.

"Chinese? Can't we have pizza?" she chirped.

Emerson sighed. Pizza was the enemy, at least according to fitness guru Jilly Gymshoe. But, he thought, I'm with my daughter and that's cause for a celebration.

They ate pizza and Emerson told Penny about his adventures as a private investigator, carefully editing out Ned's magic finger. Penny was enthralled. That night Emerson read his book Lil Gumshoe to her until she fell asleep.

Emerson's happy ending would remain happy, but it would put his relationship with dog trainer Simone Hundin in danger...

And another thing he didn't know was that Penny was privately doing some detective work of her own.


	4. Olive

**A/N Update at last! Thanks to my reviewers! Basically, this focuses on how Olive and Penny start closing in On Ned's secret. I hope you like it and please review! I promise they'll be more about Ned's dad in the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

Young Olive was lonely and bored. She had decided that she was going to run away and find a more exciting life. However, there were two problems with this plan. One was that she had no-where to go. Two was that running away was not all it cracked up to be.

Young Olive spent two nights sleeping outside in a sleeping bag that was too small and surviving off bags of candy and potato chips. She returned home bedraggled and hungry. Her parents, as usual didn't notice.

20 years later, Olive was still having trouble to getting people to notice her, in particular one young man. The Pie Maker.

How Olive fell in love with the Pie Maker, she didn't know. She only knew her feelings came as suddenly as one Charlotte Charles. Her first meeting with the Pie Maker went like this:  
"Hey, I'm Olive Snook. I just moved in next door. We're neighbours, yay!"

"H-hey Olive. I'm Ned. I run the Pie Hole downstairs . I'm actually looking for a waitress and someone who could help me look after my dog, Digby..."

With those three sentences, Olive found herself sinking into something sweet and sticky like pie. But like pie, it could be sickly sweet with the emphasis on sickly.

She set about trying to make the Pie Maker hers. She was the best waitress the Pie Hole had ever had and Ned seemed to like her. Olive found Ned had a lot of unusual habits, such as petting his dog Digby with a stick, disappearing off with one Emerson Cod, and a strange aversion to touch. But Olive found such habits cute and mysterious instead of weird and tried everything she could possibly think of to get noticed.

Then there came one of the worse days in Olive's life. The day the enigmatic Chuck turned up. The Pie Maker could only look at Chuck, and now Olive was more invisible than ever. The new girl was full of strange habits, such as wearing headscarves and dark glasses a lot and she and Ned could only kiss with plastic wrap due to a "food allergy". Olive did not find this cute and mysterious. This was definitely weird and off putting. Plus, Chuck had faked her death and left her aunts heartbroken.

Strangely, Chuck and Olive grew to like each other, having a stormy relationship nevertheless. Even stranger, Olive grew to like Emerson Cod. She had a natural flair for detective work and he had even offered her a job. For a split second Olive thought about taking that job and leaving the Pie Hole altogether...but she still could not let go of the Pie Maker.

Then she met Randy Mann, a lonely soul, rather eccentric. He persuaded her to go out on a date, and that date led to many more, and the many more dates led to Olive leaving the Pie Hole to open The Intrepid Cow with Randy. And, of course, Pigby.

Everyone was sad to see her leave the Pie Hole, but Olive promised she would visit, and visit she did. She continued to spend time with Digby, the only one who she felt had fully appreciated her at all times. The new waitress, Kirsten, went out of her way to be nice to Olive. Olive was glad someone else was getting left out of the action instead of her. Ned was still as unreachable as ever and her heart still gave a sad little pang when she looked at him. But it was fading.

She was invited to the Pie Hole to meet Penny. This was a ploy to keep Penny busy while Emerson spent some time with Simone.

Emerson, Simone and Penny were already seated when Olive arrived. Olive could hear their conversation.

"Are you the bitch lady mommy told me about?" Penny asked sweetly.

"Emerson!" barked Simone, snapping her fingers.

"Hey! Simone is not a bitch, Penny!" Emerson scolded.

"But she's a girl and she likes dogs!"

Bubblegum barked.

"Just because I'm a woman who likes dogs, that doesn't make me a bitch. And you shouldn't talk to me like that!"

"Sorry, Simone!"

"Ms. Hundin!" the fingers snap as well as her mouth.

"But everyone else calls you Simone!"

"Hey, everybody!" Olive cut in, deciding it was time to make her presence known. She smiled at Penny.

"Are you Penny? I'm Olive Snook, Emerson's friend. I used to be a waitress here!"

"Are you my daddy's Itty Bitty? It's very nice to meet you Miss. Snook."

Simone glared, wondering why Olive won the respect she did not.

"Oh no, you can call me Olive. Miss. Snook makes me sound like a lonely old lady."

"You're pretty, Olive!" Penny grinned.

Emerson rolled his eyes. Simone stood up.

"Time we were going. Come," she demanded Emerson. Emerson looked like he was going to protest. She snapped her fingers again and he closed his mouth.

They left and Olive was left with Penny.

"Hi Olive!" Kirsten trilled.

"Hello Kirsten," Olive replied with her fakest smile. "I'll just have a triple berry and whatever Penny wants please."

Olive knew the Pie Hole needed a new waitress, but she disliked being replaceable. No matter what the circumstances were.

Penny smiled at Olive.

"Ned and Chuck are in the kitchen whispering secrets. Ned is really nervous about something, but daddy says it's "grown-up" problems. Whatever! I want to know why he calls Chuck "Dead Girl" when she's alive and why Chuck was blabbering on about Ned's dad having the "magic finger."

Olive blinked.

"Well, I don't know anything except Chuck faked her death for some unknown reason...her aunts are lovely and she could have had Ned any time she wanted. I don't understand it..."

Olive warmed to her theme.

"And when I worked here they were always whispering little secrets I wasn't allowed in on and investigating cases with Emerson and..." Olive ran out of steam as Penny gazed at her.

"Wow, you're not the sweet little thing everyone thinks you are, huh? Smart, too."

"Olive, daddy says you're a good detective. What do you say we do a little investigating into the secrets our friends are keeping...?"

"Pie's up!" Kirsten interrupted.

Olive thought that this was a very good idea. She might have the chance to find out the secret that was always hidden from her. And so the investigation into the private investigators began.

Olive and Penny began by paying a visit to Lily and Vivian to try and find out if Chuck had any dark secrets she was hiding. Olive knew Chuck had eventually revealed that she was alive to them and joined them on their European tour. What she didn't know was why she had faked her death in the first place. And what she really didn't know was that Chuck hadn't faked her death at all, but been brought back to life with the Pie Maker's magic finger.

Penny's mouth dropped open when she saw the house. It was the largest house she had ever seen before, ten times as big as her daddy's apartment. She daydreamed about what it would be like to live there.

Lily appeared at the door with her shotgun. Penny squeaked in alarm.

"Oh, it's you," Lily said to Olive. To Penny she said "I wouldn't shoot you. This is for pain in the asses. You're not being a pain in the ass."

"Kindly refrain from swearing in front of children, Lily," Vivian's voice fluted out from behind her.

"I'll swear in front of who I like," Lily snorted. "Come in."

Penny was awed at the size of the house. Olive took the pie she had brought to sweeten Lily and Vivian up into the kitchen.

"Who are you then?" Lily asked Penny.

"My name is Penny Cod. I'm the daughter of Emerson Cod, private investigator."

"The fat one?" Lily asked, letting out a giggle. Vivian jumped, still surprised by the happy sounds.

"Lily!" Vivian exclaimed "I'm sorry, my sister has been overexcited ever since my niece and her daughter came back from the dead. Lonely Tourist Charlotte Charles?"

"Chuck! She's really nice. She's always kissing Ned with cling film. Olive says that they're allergic to each other. Is that really true? And why did she fake her death?"

"Now, now Penny!" Olive appeared with four slices of pie balanced on plates. "Asking too many questions is bad manners!"

The sisters exchanged glances. They sensed someone else getting close to the Pie Maker's secret. The secret they had agreed to keep to themselves. Ned didn't want the whole world knowing. The thought of fame scared him.

"How was the tour?" Olive asked, to fill the silence.

"Oh, amazing!" Lily began.

And though the two junior detectives prodded and pressed the sisters, they were giving nothing away.

"This blows," Penny announced as she walked into the Pie Hole with Olive. Emerson would be back soon. "Maybe we should just ask Chuck why she did it herself..."

"She won't tell you anything," Olive reminded her.

"And neither will daddy. Next time he goes out with Simone, I'll ask him to get you to look after me. And we can work on it some more. We need to write down everything we know and see if anything links together."

"Got it!" Olive nodded. She frowned. Ned, Chuck and Emerson were arguing.

"I'm not talking to my dad! I'll talk to him when I want to! You can't just arrange things for other people! It's like when you're a kid and you get told you have to do this NOW! And you don't even get a choice!"

"Ned..." Chuck pleaded.

Ned shook his head and strode out. Chuck followed him.

"I'm not talking to him!"

"Hey, Penny!" Emerson called from where he was standing. There was a red mark on his cheek where Simone had slapped him earlier.

Back at the aunt's house, someone was watching. Listening, waiting, preparing for the right moment to make himself known...

**A/N O.K, so there wasn't a lot of action. I was trying to develop the relationships between the characters more, as well as Penny's personality. More action next chapter! And please review!**


	5. Lily

**A/N Sorry it took so long to update. I've been busy and well...this chapter was hard. It's pretty long and I can't think of how to tie up the pocket watch mystery. Hopefully I'll have come up with something by the next chapter. Thanks to my reviewers, I love you all. Updates will probably be weekly now...got a science exam, social enterprise project and work experience about to eat me up.**

**Disclaimer: Rearrange this sentence. mine. Not**

Young Lily was used to protecting her even younger sister Vivian. Vivian was born with a hole in her heart and that heart was one of gold. Young Lily grew up being told to take care of her sister. When Young Lily was 7 years, 5 months, 1 week, 4 days, 7 hours and 26 minutes old, bullies were picking on her younger sister Vivian. Lily defeated the bullies with her steely glare that was feared even when it became a one eyed glare.

Young Vivian's admiration for her sister turned her into a copy cat, and it was through this habit and a love of swimming that the Darling Mermaid Darlings were born. And with them came success for the sisters. They would have fame and fortune and fulfil all their dreams.

Unfortunately, Lily's dreams of having a child were fulfilled in extremely awkward circumstances. She fled to a nunnery to have the child of her sister's fiancée, one Charlotte Charles otherwise known as Chuck. Her affair with Charles Charles was not planned by either of them and neither was Charlotte. There was no love it, only heat of the moment passion that would never last. Vivian would never know for a good 30 years.

Lily's heart was broken when Charles Charles took their daughter to raise as his own, so as to keep the secret from Vivian. He in turn broke Vivian's heart- she knew he'd had an affair with another woman that had resulted in Charlotte. Vivian was told Charlotte's mother had died in child birth. And so Lily became "Aunt" instead of "Mum" and was forced to live with the fact she had done something to hurt her beloved sister. As she said to Vivian many years later "I couldn't break your heart so I broke mine instead".

As if things weren't bad enough, Lily lost the sight in one of her eyes due to a piece of stray cat litter. This annoying handicap did however become a handy excuse to stop being one half of the Darling Mermaid Darlings. Lily often felt she was being punished because of her affair. The sisters developed matching personality disorders and did not leave the house.

When Charles Charles died, Lily could not say she was particularly upset. Vivian took it badly as she took everything badly. Lily often felt she had to be the strong sister and at times she felt this was simply not fair. But she was grateful that they would now get to look after Charlotte. She could watch her beloved daughter grow up.

But Charlotte grew adventurous while the aunts stayed shut up in their house with their birds. She left on a cruise ship and there she would find herself murdered.

What was left of Lily's heart was torn away. The alcohol and pie from Beaver Boy numbed the pain but Lily often did not bother getting out of bed. As for her sister Vivian, after the initial shock she tried to get Lily to move on and reach for happiness.

But people will not reach things if they don't stretch for them and Lily refused to stretch. Happiness was alien to her and it would stay that way. Unless, by some miracle Charlotte was brought back to life.

The sisters found a new friend in Olive Snook, who delivered them pies from the Pie Maker. Or Beaver Boy, as he was fondly remembered by the sisters. While this was nice, chirpy Olive tended to be annoying in large doses. Then came Lily's confession: she was Charlotte's mother.

From then on, Lily found herself in a constant panic attack. Her greatest fear could come true at any second. Olive might tell Vivian the truth and then Vivian would know everything...

Instead, Lily managed to persuade Olive to stay in the same nunnery she herself stayed in while pregnant with Charlotte. This did not go as planned due to a nun flying out of a tower and an investigation by one Emerson Cod. Olive did, however, find her booze in Bible trick useful for a couple of weeks.

After this, Lily and Vivian met one Dwight Dixon, shifty man looking for both Ned's dad and Chuck's dad. Lily had no idea why he was searching for Ned's dad, useless man. Charles had always been a terrible judgement of character though, something the Pie Maker would agree on whole heartedly. Her gut told her Dwight Dixon was bad news, but sadly it couldn't tell her how she could get Vivian to believe her.

The romance of Dwight and Vivian was thankfully short lived, much to Lily's relief. Dwight disappeared, then turned up dead after she stole the pocket watch he'd dug up from her daughter's grave back. The riddle of the pocket watches was one she couldn't solve...why were they so important to this man? Little did she know that she would soon find out...

Vivian was desperate to get back into their Darling Mermaid Darlings synchronised swimming act, so Lily went along with it. She loved her sister, she'd do anything for her. There was the added matter of how she'd felt their relationship grow rocky recently. But this leap of faith took a turn for the worse when the jealous Koral spilled her darkest secret to Vivian...Chuck was her daughter.

Lily felt her heart break as her sister, sweet gentle, with a heart of gold hurled the vase at her head. The secret she'd kept safe for 30 years...revealed in five minutes. And Vivian turned the tables on her...threw her out.

And on the door step where there should've been a cab was on Charlotte Charles, alive. Beaver Boy was standing next to her, looking nervous. Lily's jaw dropped so far she felt it was no longer attached to her head. She looked at Ned a.k.a the Pie Maker a.k.a Beaver Boy.

"Is this some kind of sick joke, Beaver Boy?" Lily spluttered.

"No, Mom, it's me, Charlotte. I'm alive," said the angel.

Vivian collapsed on the floor behind Lily. She had fainted.

"Charlotte, you died. We buried you..." Lily could barely speak. Everything she'd ever wanted was standing on her door step and her mind was insisting it wasn't real...

"Perhaps...perhaps we could come in and explain..." Beaver Boy began.

Lily daren't take her eyes of Charlotte in case she disappeared. She could feel the tears in her eyes as the whirlwind of emotions swept her into their stormy grip. The rain began.

"It's O.K...it's O.K Mom..." Charlotte dropped the flowers and threw her arms around her mother. Ned shifted awkwardly before squeezing past them. He looked at Vivian unconscious on the floor and half carried, half dragged her back into the living room.

Lily didn't care. She was sobbing like she hadn't done for years and so was Chuck. Her head couldn't take it! She'd seen this body lying in a coffin...had they buried her alive?

"How...how..." Lily stuttered.

"Come on, let's go inside," Charlotte was sniffing back tears of her own. "I'll explain with Ned..."

"What's he got to do with it?" Lily demanded.

"Just...just come in and we'll explain..." Charlotte urged her.

Unable to do anything else, Lily clasped her daughter's hand and they walked in together. Ned had put Vivian on the couch and was staring intently at the carpet.

"What is so interesting about my carpet?" Lily snapped.

He looked up guiltily.

"Oh..." he muttered.

"You knew she was alive and you didn't tell me!" Lily's emotion was being channelled out as anger.

"Don't Mom...it wasn't Ned's fault..." said Charlotte the angel.

"How did you know I was your mother? We never told you..." Lily's voice was on verge of breaking once again.

"Olive told Ned who told me,"

"Olive? I knew she'd never keep her mouth shut," Lily growled. "Did Olive know you were...were alive?"

"She thinks I faked my death."

"Did you?"

"No. No, I didn't fake being dead."

"So...are you like a clone? Because my Charlotte was dead! I saw her!"

"O.K. O.K, Mom. This is going to sound crazy...but I was brought back to life."

It did sound crazy, but Lily was fine with crazy if it meant it was possible Charlotte was standing there.

"Mmmm...." Ned jumped as Vivian began to regain consciousness. "Lily?" she called. "I had the most terrible dream that you were the one Charles cheated on me with and Charlotte was your daughter and then she was standing right there on the door step with the Pie Maker..."

"Aunt Vivian?" Charlotte called back tentatively. "It's me...I'm alive. And Aunt Lily is really my mom but it doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is that we're together."

There were tears in her eyes and Ned swallowed hard.

"I have to show you something," he began. "Something that you'd only usually see in cheap movies where the heroine faints a lot and the guy is big and tough and probably called Butch and..."

"Get on with it," Lily sighed, exasperated.

He scooped a vase of dead flowers of the windowsill and touched them...the crumpled, drooping brown leaves suddenly jolted back to life and a flower opened up. It was a perfect daisy, green leaves, yellow centre, white petals.

"What the..."

For once in her life, Lily was lost for words.

And that is how the Charles sisters discovered the Pie Maker's secret and regained what they had lost.

The comeback tour went swimmingly well, but Lily was glad it was over until next year. She was finally getting to know her daughter again and even the word "Mom" made her brim over with happiness. Vivian was worried, but Lily was determined to be happy and not waste another minute she had with Charlotte.

At this very moment, Lily was not with Charlotte and not with Vivian, but sitting in the house alone. Charlotte had gone to see Ned. Lily noted the tension she'd seen on her daughters face the last time she'd seen her. Something was going on, but Lily had no idea that Ned's father was back from the dead. She just assumed it was something to do with the magic finger. One probably couldn't have a magic finger without having various problems to go with it. She thought about calling in at The Intrepid Cow to see Olive. A fondness for Olive Snook, friend and pie delivery girl swamped her. Yes. She would go and see Olive. Vivian had gone out God knows where and Lily was bored.

She was about to leave, when she heard something upstairs. A definite crash and a muffled, cursing voice. The voice seemed familiar but Lily could not place it. Familiar or not familiar, the owner of the voice was not breaking into her house. Lily silently crept into the living room. Her gun was lying in the corner. She picked it up and made her way up the stairs.

The intruder was in her room! How dare they go sneaking through her things?

"Alright, games up! Move and I shoot you!"

The intruder definitely looked familiar. They were holding something.

"Ned?" she asked, unable to think of another man she knew very well.

"Heya, cupcake. Still toting the gun I see,"

Lily's face paled.

"Charles?" she whispered.

He turned round. He was wearing bandages round his face, as well as glasses. He was dressed in a scruffy old coat and jeans. In his left hand he held the pocket watch case.

"This'll get you in trouble, cupcake," he announced to her shocked face.

11 minutes later, Lily was seated and facing Charles, father of her child, fellow betrayer of Vivian. Died years ago in the garden.

She did not know this was because of Ned's cosmic exchange. She did however, know that Ned's magic finger had been at work again. She wondered if her old mother would pop out of somewhere, alive once again.

Ned was not her favourite person right now.

Charles spoke about Ned with the kind of hate fathers reserve for their daughter's boyfriends. Times two due to Ned being his cause of death and "taking his precious little button away." This was standard Charles stuff. He had always been petrified Lily would find some way to take Charlotte away. As if Lily would dare.

"Why'd he bring you back in the first place?" Lily eventually asked.

"Wanted to know about Dwight Dixon and the importance of these," he help up the pocket watch case.

"Told em it was nothing cos I didn't want to put them in danger. Truth is those pocket watches...they're much more than pocket watches..."

**A/N I WILL think of something about the pocket watches! *bangs head on keyboard* And I think they were in U.N Peace Keepers...someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm thinking of the pic where Ned's dad, Chuck's dad and Dwight Dixon are all on camels.**


	6. Vivian

**A/N Hey, people! Thank you to my reviewers so far, you are really coolio and encouraging. Thank you all *deep breath* - Techno Coloured, iluvpushingdaisies, Pendragon98, Anarra, WildCroconaw but special mega thanks to WeepingAngel123 and contemptuousappeal who have REVIEWED EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER! Came up with pocket watch thing at last and I hope it's O.K. Hopefully not too confusing. **

Young Vivian had a problem and the problem was this: her kind heart and quiet ways made her a prime target for the common school bully. Luckily, sister Lily was never very far away with her water pistol and angry glare. Vivian regarded her big sister as her hero, everything she wanted to be.

She did not know what she regarded her sister as now. Certainly not the hero she once was. Lily was now someone she found hard to recognise and even harder to understand.

Vivian fell in love with Charles Charles early on. She had thought that he loved her too, even though she often shied away from touch. But, as she discovered years later, he had had a daughter with her sister, something even more unforgivable than merely having an affair with another woman.

When the devious Koral let Vivian in on this age old secret, Vivian felt everything she'd ever believed in slowly crumble and breathing got very difficult. Anger like she'd never felt before raged through her veins and an era ended. It was time for something new.

Lily had to go. But on the doorstep stood her deceased niece alive and well. With her stood the Pie Maker. The shock blazed and smothered until Vivian gave up trying to hold it all in her head and fainted.

Her head had even more to hold later on when she learned of the Pie Maker's special gift that gave with one hand and took with the other.

Charlotte's arrival had made everything else pale in comparison, especially things that would be better off remaining in the dark void of the past.

How wonderful she and the Pie Maker were together! The sheer romance of it all was more beautiful than any novel Vivian had ever read. Yes, they couldn't touch, but they still managed to have such a wonderful relationship. Vivian felt a spark of what could only be jealousy.

For although Lily remained bitter and distrustful of the ways of love, Vivian was still searching for that special someone. She realised it the minute she'd met that despicable Dwight Dixon.

Vivian grasped all her courage tightly and set out to the Coeurs de Couers Speed Dating Night in the Community Hall. Vivian realised she would gain nothing by waiting, and so bravely went looking for the love she longed for. The revelation of how she could not always depend on her sister made her want to go out and find someone she could share a life with properly.

Vivian was seated at a table, as were the other women. She would talk to each man for five minutes and then they would move round. The host stood at the front with the buzzer, calling for attention

"Alright, people! Remember this is supposed to be a fun way of meeting people like yourself. If someone catches your eye, find them again later and get dating! But don't be disheartened if you don't find "The One". At the very least you'll make some great friends here! Ready, GO!"

The buzzer sounded and Vivian felt all her doubts come rushing towards the surface. Her first partner greeted her.

"Hi. Is this your first time here?" he asked.

"Y-yes. It is," she stuttered nervously.

"Hey, don't be nervous. It's my first time too, actually. But you heard what they said; it's supposed to be fun."

The words calmed Vivian greatly, and as she stared into the stranger's eyes she felt as though the Earth had stopped turning beneath her.

"I'm David Davids," he held a hand out for her to shake. She took it cautiously.

"Vivian Charles,"

"Hey, aren't you one of the Darling Mermaid Darlings? I came to your show. It was truly spectacular."

"Yes. I...I...what do you do?"

"Oh, I manage the Book de Books book shop in town. I just love books..."

The two barely noticed their five minutes tick away as they talked about their favourite books.

"Maybe I'll see you later," David Davids grinned as he left.

Vivian giggled to herself. Memories of her teenage years flooded back to her and the giddy feeling of falling in love was almost upon her once again.

Vivian found the rest of the evening a delight and she laughed so much she felt like her mouth would fall off and her tongue would drop out. She met a fitness addict who lifted weights while they talked, a sarcastic teenager who was writing a report entitled "Speed Dating and Why It Sucks" and a grumpy old man who wouldn't stop ranting about how badly his ex wife had treated him.

Vivian let happiness take her in its arms.

She and David Davids would begin dating and Vivian would keep it secret from Lily. The sisters had put the past behind them once and for all as they completed their European tour with Charlotte by their sides. But Vivian realised that life was precious and she didn't want to waste hers shut up with her sister.

One stormy night Vivian returned home to hear her sister talking to...to a man. He sounded vaguely familiar and the first thing that crossed her mind was that Ned was here. She went followed the voices and as she got closer she realised it wasn't in fact the Pie Maker talking to Lily, but...

"You...you scoundrel!" Vivian gasped as she opened the door to see none other than one Charles Charles back from the dead.

"Vivian...it's been a long time..."

"Yes, a very long time since you _died_. Has Ned been here? "

"Don't worry Vivian, I'll soon sort him out." Lily tried to reassure her.

"No, no, I'm sure he did it for a very good reason. He's such a kind man."

"Yeah, a kind man who _stole_ my daughter."

"It's not like that Charles. He loves her. But then, I don't expect you to understand such things."

"Neither do you, by what I've heard about you and _Dwight Dixon_."

"A regrettable mistake but I've learnt from it. What are you doing here?"

"I'm back to claim what's mine. The pocket watches," he announced.

"Are you going to tell me about them or what?" Lily snapped, losing patience.

"Oh, it's quite a story. A very long story..."

The facts were these. One Charles Charles joined the U.N Peacekeepers with team mates Dwight Dixon and Ned's father. They were equally passionate about bringing peace to warring countries. They worked together and laughed together and fought together, until one fateful day when Dwight and Charles stumbled on Ned's father using his gift to wake the dead. They grew amazed and panicked in equal measures as Ned's father explained what they had seen. Ned's father made the pocket watches- each devised to time the exactly one minute his gift could work for without killing another. Ned's father revealed that he had been experimenting with his gift and underneath the watch of the pocket watches were tiny injections that could bring the dead back to life with his gift. The watches could only fall out to reveal the injection when all three pocket watches were laid in the case together- Charles and Dwight may have the power to bring one person back to life each, and only if it was a joint decision. It was a payment for keeping the gift of Ned and his father a secret.

But Dwight Dixon became enchanted with the power and took drastic measures to gain the chance to use it himself. He killed his girlfriend by trapping her in the washing machine and putting it on a full spin cycle so he could convince the others to use the power in his watch. Unfortunately his girlfriend was all too happy to proclaim Dwight her killer. The police were called and Dwight was taken away.

Ned's father and Charles Charles eventually settled down together in Coeur de Couers, keeping the watches as simple mementos. With Dwight in prison, they assumed that the watches would never be together again.

Many years later, Dwight returned for the pocket watches. He'd boasted about the gift to his prison mates and now he would take this injection to the world and become rich. Sadly for him, the gift he was obsessed with brought about his own death.

In the universal scheme of things, Dwight's life was snatched away from him and given to Charles Charles, formerly dead. It was, of course, an unintentional act of the Pie Maker and a fully intentional act of a girl named Chuck.

Charles was alive again while Dwight took his place rotting in the ground. And now he had possession of two out of the three pocket watches. If he were to bring someone back to life he needed one more pocket watch.

Vivian thought of the chaos the gift of Ned and his father brought and wondered if it was worth bringing loved ones back to life. Everything has its time and everything dies. But as Vivian has discovered, this is not always true.

Charles Charles willingly agreed to drive the sisters to the Pie Hole. He later would have wished that he hadn't bothered. Something else altogether more important was happening at the Pie Hole.

Vivian frowned as she spotted one Olive Snook with one Penny Cod, young investigator. And a pig on a leash.

"NED! NED! It's Olive and Penny! And Pigby! Let us in!" Olive thumped on the door. Digby barked from inside.

"We've been shut out because Ned is having a fight with his dad," Penny pouted at the staring threesome.

"NOT NOW, OLIVE!" the Pie Maker's anxious and agitated voice floated out from inside the building. At one point it would have made Olive weak at the knees. Now it made her want to plunge his head into a custard pie.

Vivian timidly knocked on the door.

"Ned? Ned? Oh, Charlotte! Your father is here!"

"WHAT?! He's back!" Vivian realised her niece had known about Charles being alive again but she had not thought to mention it to her or Lily.

There was the sound of locks unlocking in a series of quick clicks.

"Come in," Chuck's face appeared at the door. "Sorry Olive and Penny, not you. This is private. But you can let Pigby play with Digby."

Digby yelped as he found himself pushed outside towards the grunting thing that had brought Olive back from the nunnery.

Vivian went in first only to come face to face with a stressed Ned and a father full of explanations and apologies. In his hand he clutched what could only be the third pocket watch.

**A/N I hope Vivian's not too OOC but I wanted to show how things had changed to make her look for a better life. Hence the speed dating. Real fun begins next chapter!**


	7. Digby

**A/N Much drama in this chapter. You'll find out. Thanks reviewers! **

**Disclaimer: Don't own. Bow down to Bryan Fuller. **

Digby was a dog who knew death. He knew it to be painful and he knew his best friend Ned would always be surrounded by it. The human that lived with Ned died and Ned was shipped off to the Longborough School For Boys. Digby was lonely without his best friend and so he set out to find him.

Their reunion was a happy one, marred only by the fact that they could not touch. For Digby had died in a road accident and Ned had brought him back to life. The rules of Ned's gift stated that if Ned touched a living thing that he had brought back to life again they died.

And so Digby came to heavily rely on Olive Snook for ice cream, treats and long walks. Until she disappeared off to the nunnery only to be rescued by Pigby, who denied he was in fact a pig. He insisted through the medium of grunt that he was a dog. Digby asked him to bark. The pig grunted proudly.

At this present moment in time, Digby had been unceremoniously shoved out the door of the Pie Hole by one Charlotte Charles. Digby yelped. He'd been enjoying listening to the humans inside and wanted to protect Ned from the man making him unhappy.

"Dammit! Let us in!" Olive whined., thumping on the door.

"That won't help," Penny stated matter of factly.

"What else can we do?" Olive said despairingly.

"Use our ace detective skills to find another way in,"

Digby liked the sound of this and he knew exactly where they should go. In through the back door. Humans could be dense at times. He barked at Olive who was fluent in Digby speak. Pigby tried to add that he'd thought of it too.

"Oh! Digby knows a way in!" Olive exclaimed.

Digby led them to the back of the Pie Hole. There was a door that was led to the kitchens.

"They've probably locked it..." Olive made as if to run into the door.

"No!" Penny held up her hand to stop her. Then she tried the door handle. The door was not locked.

"Some junior detectives if they can't even remember to lock the door when under investigation," Olive snorted.

Pigby agreed.

Digby ignored her. With his finely tuned canine hearing, he could hear everything.

The older human that had been upsetting Ned was talking quietly. He was explaining.

"You do understand that I only ran out on you to keep you safe. I loved you, you were my first son. Sending you to that boarding school was the only way to keep you safe..."

Digby whined. The Longborough School For Boys had not exactly been his favourite place either.

"I think leaving a child in such a place is disgraceful no matter what the circumstances," the human he recognised as Vivian piped up.

"If you ask me, the whole pocket watch thing was a bad idea and you're an idiot for coming up with it," Lily spat.

"I forgot how feisty you Charles sisters were..." Ned's father counted.

"Don't you call me feisty mister, unless you want me to shove a gun in a place you really don't want it!"

Olive giggled quietly.

"Ssh!" Penny hushed her.

"Penny, we've got no idea what they're talking about. Why don't we just pop out and ask instead of hiding here?"

"Because then they won't tell us anything! Just shut that big mouth of your for once!"

"Don't talk to me like that! Could you be anymore like Emerson? Wait a minute, Emerson! When is he coming back with Simone to pick you up?"

Digby growled at Simone's name. If she tried to train him one more time... And if she tried to train Pigby, well, that would make him think he was a dog even more.

"We've got about half an hour!"

"We've only got half an hour to work out what's going on?"

"Yes! Now ssh, I'm listening!"

"Dad..." they heard Chuck speak. "Did you ever use the injection in your watch?"

"No, button, I never got the chance..."

"Well, could you use it now?"

"Now we've got all three watches and the case...yeah we could use it."

"Actually, I have a question. Well, maybe not exactly a question, but more of an angry and provoked query. Why did you steal my car?" Ned cut in.

"Figured the very least you owed me was a car after all you've done. Killed me, stole my daughter."

"It was an accident and I've told you it was an accident I didn't know bringing back my mother would kill you. I'm not saying it was any less tragic, just that I did it unintentionally. And I did not steal Chuck. Stealing suggests I took her from you like an object and Chuck is not an object she is a person, therefore I did not steal her...and..."

"Ned is right, Dad. He never stole me, I chose to be with him..."

"He's brainwashed you into believing this life is all you could ever have when you could have so much more!"

"Didn't you ever stop and think that this life was all I ever wanted! I've got an amazing boyfriend, the Pie Hole, my mom, my aunt, my friends..."

Olive scrunched her nose up.

"Still don't know what they're talking about Pen...Ned accidentally killed Chuck's dad when he's standing there alive? Maybe the water supply's been contaminated with dangerous mind warping drugs. And what's this about pocket watches?"

"Well...there's something special about the watches because Chuck asked her dad about whether he'd used the "injection" inside. Then he said he could use it as they had all three watches. And after that they moved on to Ned talking about killing him. He said "I didn't know bringing back my mother would kill you". Maybe they don't mean killing as in really killing. You know how Ned likes his metaphors. But the big question is what the injection inside the watch does. It must do something pretty special..."

Digby's canine ears were pricked. He could guess all too well what the injection inside the pocket watch did. What should he do? He could bark right now and Olive and Penny and Pigby would be ejected from the Pie Hole. Or he could let them find out...

Digby would let them find out, he decided. If they were going to stay part of the Pie Maker's life it was better that they knew.

"So, Dad, the injection inside the pocket watch works like our "gift". You know, "gift" is such a strange word for our ability. I'd say it was more like the sweaters grannies knit for Christmas. We have to like it and sometimes we really do but it's embarrassing to bring out into public."

"Yes, it's the magic touch in an injection. Someone else still has to die if you keep someone dead alive again for more than sixty seconds. The only thing that's different is you don't have to touch the person to wake them up. And you can touch them without killing them when they're alive."

"So, with this you could bring someone back to life and still be able to touch them..."

"Correct."

"Impossible," Penny breathed. "Olive- I believe that Ned can bring people back to life..."

The tiny waitress's mind whirled with this possibility. "Of course. Now it all makes sense! Chuck didn't fake her death, Ned brought her back to life again. And they don't touch because...because..."

"If they did she'd die again. And I don't think he can bring her back a second time!"

"Jimminy Crispies, this can't be happening. He doesn't touch Digby either! Are you supposed to be dead Digby?"

Digby barked that, yes, he was supposed to be dead.

"What was that?" Ned asked. "Digby? Is that you?"

"Oh, hell, no!" Penny growled.

"You shouldn't talk like that!" Olive hissed.

"Olive? Penny?" the Pie Maker over the counter and was looking straight at them.

"Hi, Ned. Surprise!" Olive squeaked.


	8. Pigby

**A/N I know this chapter is very short but I didn't really know how to keep up with Pigby's viewpoint. It seemed right to leave it where I got to. But next chapter should have a LOT happening in it. I originally only intended this story to be 8 chapters, but it's definitely going to need a couple more!**

**Disclaimer: No characters are mine. **

Pigby had had a very simple life. He'd been born in a nunnery and been taught how to hunt truffles. Then he'd killed a nasty human and then met a nice one, Olive Snook. She'd taken him home with her and there he'd met Digby. They became friends. That was it.

Until Digby started telling him how his human Ned had a magic finger. Pigby didn't believe him.

"Hi, Ned! Surprise!" Olive squeaked.

"Olive! What are you doing here? Listening like a...like..."

But Ned was too upset to think of a metaphor.

"Ned, I have deduced that you have the power to bring people back to life and that you don't touch Chuck or Digby because doing so would kill them," announced Penny.

"That's not true, I mean come on, a magic finger that brings people back to life, that's like something out of a comic book,"

"Ah! So you bring them back to life through touching them with your finger!" Penny grinned. She liked to win.

"I never said that! Did I say that? No!"

"It's true. I died and he brought me back to life." Chuck cut in. She disliked dishonesty.

"And everybody knew. Everybody knew apart from me!" Olive spoke angrily.

"That's not true! There are a lot of people that don't know. The rest of the world doesn't know! Olive..."

"There are two people in this room I've never even seen before and they know! And I didn't!"

"I'm Ned's father."

"What? The scumbag that ran off and left Ned and Maurice and Ralston with a whole cabinet of childhood issues?"

"I know how that's how it sounds."

"And I'm Charlotte's father. Pleased to meet you."

"You're supposed to be _dead_!"

"Excuse me," Vivian cut in. "I have to go,"

"Where the hell have you got to go that's more important than this?"

"I have a date. With the nice man that runs Book de Books. I'll see you later, Lily." Vivian said boldly, turning to stride out of the Pie Hole.

Lily became speechless for the first time in many years. The fear that her sister was going to get her heart broken crept up and swallowed her.

Pigby had no idea what to make of the scene before him. He was soon distracted by the smell of pie and went to have a snack. The humans did talk a lot of rubbish these days. A magic finger indeed...


	9. Ned Revisited

**A/N It's getting close to the end now. I know it is short YET AGAIN and I'm sorry, but I wanted to cut it off at the cruelest point. As lots of other fan fic authors have been giving me horrible cliff hangers, I'm doing the same. MUAHAHAHA! Thank you to my very patient readers and reviewers, I'll try and have another update up sometime this week to make up for the shortness. **

**Disclaimer: This didn't happen in the show. Therefore it is not mine.**

Of Ned's 29 years, 5 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 15 hours and 56 minutes of life, this day was the worst.

His father had returned to add another magic finger to the mix, the pocket watch mystery had been solved, Vivian had abandoned her sister for a date and now Olive and Penny were in on the magic finger secret. Oh, and Charles was back too, looking like he was ready to beat Ned up. Good thing he couldn't actually touch Ned, then. All that was missing was Emerson's grumpy, sarcastic presence. Though the grumpy seemed to be getting better thanks to one Simone Hundin. The Pie Maker's head began to whirl, and he felt faint.

Olive flopped onto a stool.

"Get me pie. NOW!" she screamed.

"Get your own pie. I have to get after Vivian before she does something stupid," Lily cut in bitterly.

"No, mom," Chuck argued, shaking her head. "Aunt Vivian's not being stupid, she's being brave. You can't find love without taking risks. And although some risks are greater than others-" she shot a smile at Ned "-there has to be at least a little risk involved to get what you want."

Lily opened her mouth to argue. But Chuck began to speak again.

"I made a risk to get you and Vivian, people I love, back into my life when I turned up on the porch that day. I risked the two of you not being able to take it and shutting me out. But it turned out for the best. You'll never know if you could have had something good if you don't take risks," she finished.

"I understand. I still have to go after Vivian though. To apologise. For everything. I never did say I was sorry. Not really,"

And with that she left the Pie Hole. Only to bump into Emerson Cod who was coming in.

"How nice to see you Lily," he began.

"Save it!" she growled.

"What the hell is going on in here? And why is Itty Bitty stuffing her face with pie?"

"It's not like there's a shortage!" Olive mumbled through a mouthful. "You should check out the kitchen!"

"Your dumbass pig is doing that for me!"

"Oh no! Bad Pigby!"

"It's really O.K, Olive. We have enough pie," Ned muttered.

"Anyone going to answer my first question? Here it is again for those of you with short memories. What the hell is going on?"

"Your daughter just worked out my secret magic finger. While that's very clever and great and good, it's not so good because now it's not really a secret anymore considering how many people know," Ned babbled.

Emerson blinked at Penny.

"What do you say to becoming a P.I in training?"

"Really Daddy? How awesome!" she said, sugary sweet.

Ned's father was quiet. He was thinking of how lucky his son was to have made such great friends. Looking back he could see that his friend choices hadn't always been so great.

On the other side of the room, Charles Charles was thinking the very same thing. His daughter seemed happy and loved surrounded by these people. While he wanted it to be just him and her, as it was when they were both alive, she seemed more than content with this circle of friends. He supposed he should be grateful at this second chance of life and resolved to make things up with the Pie Maker.

Charles Charles and Ned's father turned towards each other.

"It's good to see you again, Charlie boy," Ned's father grinned.

"Yeah, same to you. You should be proud of your son, you know,"

"Yeah, I am. He didn't turn out so bad."

If new beginnings could have an aroma, it would have swept the air in the Pie Hole. But new beginnings meant that some things must end. And Ned, whose mind could no longer hold all the new information at once began to shut down. This caused his legs to give way and his body to fall as he finally fainted.

Onto the person standing next to him. He fell onto Chuck.

**A/N NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! CHUCK!** **How could this happen? Oh, it was me? I HATE MYSELF!**


	10. Digby Revisited

**A/N My solution to the "no touching rule" in this chapter! If you've read the previous chapters it is a pretty obvious solution but I have tried to make it more exciting! One more chapter after this. I mean it! I think...**

**Disclaimer: Not mine cos this didn't happen on T.V. **

Six things then happened at once.

Ned passed out unconscious from stress, shock and horror.

Chuck's body fizzled with blue light and dropped to the floor. She had no time to react.

Olive screamed.

Digby howled.

Emerson and Penny yelled "Aww, HELL no!"

And Charles attacked Ned's father.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAMILY'S FAULT!" he screamed. "IF I HAD NEVER MET YOU THIS WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!"

Ned's father ducked a blow to his head and began to back away slowly, as one does when facing Charles Charles in a rage.

Charles attacked in a frenzy of kicks and punches and Ned's father tried to block them. But the anger of Charles gave him speed and he knocked Ned's father to the floor. Emerson moved to try to intervene, but Ned's father began to fight back.

"If-it-weren't-for-my-son-your-daughter-would-still-be-dead!" Ned's father gasped between trying to punch Charles in the face.

"And-if-I-had-never-have-met-you-your-son-wouldn't-have-killed-me-and-I'd-have been there-to-look-after-her!" Charles spluttered back while aiming a kick at his opponent's gut.

"ENOUGH!" Emerson yelled. "You're lame ass fighting ain't gonna bring NOBODY back!"

"My daddy is so brave," Penny whispered to Olive, who could feel another scream coming as she leant over Chuck's dead body.

"We are gonna think about this situation calmly and logically and try to think of a way out," Emerson announced, standing between the two fathers.

"We have to bring her back to life with one of your injections!" Penny gabbled.

"But I've only got two of the pocket watches. We need the third to get them open! And the only one that's missing is yours..." he nodded at Ned's father.

"You don't think I leave that watch lying around, do you? It's right here!" he proclaimed, producing the watch from his jeans pocket.

Charles rummaged in his coat pockets for the pocket watch case complete with two pocket watches he'd retrieved earlier. Only to find it gone.

"But...no...this can't be..."

"Could it have fallen out?" Penny asked. "And check your other pockets!"

"It's not here!"

"Chuck's DEAD!" Olive sobbed from the other side of the room. "Granted I was really jealous and didn't like her much when she's alive but she made Ned so happy and her aunts happy and now they're gonna go all crazy again and she actually was a good friend and roommate in the end..."

"Which is why we need to think of a way to bring her back to life! So shut it so we can think, Little Big Mouth!" Emerson yelled. To Charles he said "We need to retrace the exact steps you took earlier in order to find the thing and pray that no-one took it or chucked it in the bin and it's still lying around somewhere..."

Little did they know, super animal detectives Digby and Pigby were already on the case. For Charles Charles had picked the watch case up at Coeur de Couer and then driven the Charles sisters to the Pie Hole meaning he could only have dropped it outside the Pie Hole or outside the house of the Charles sisters. But Digby knew that Charles Charles hadn't dropped the pocket watch case. He'd seen with his own canine eyes that upon entering the Pie Hole together Lily had picked it from his pocket.

And so the hunt for the Charles sisters began.

Pigby caught Digby sneaking out the back of the Pie Hole and insisted on coming with him.

Digby knew that the sisters had probably got into the car and driven back to Couers de Couers leaving Charles stranded. The car was indeed gone and Digby and Pigby had no way of following it.

So Digby decided to find one. Pigby suggested getting the bus like the humans. And for a mildly stupid pig (but Digby would never say this out loud because he didn't like to hurt feelings) it was actually quite a good idea. Digby and Pigby would sneak onto a bus just before the doors closed. The task required stealth and speed. Not easy for a large dog and a permanently snorting pig.

Luckily enough, the bus they chose to board was driven by one Bernard Beverly who was deaf and had a slight attention deficit disorder. Therefore Digby and Pigby were able to sneak aboard with only odd looks from human passengers to contend with.

On the way to Coeur de Coeurs, Digby suddenly remembered that Vivian had gone to meet her boyfriend who worked at Book de Books and Lily had followed her demanding answers.

Sure enough at Book de Books Vivian was shyly introducing her sister to her boyfriend. And Lily did not intend to make things easy.

"It's nice to meet you, I've heard so much about you!" David enthused as he shook Lily's hand.

"Did you hear that my sister and I thought my daughter was dead and then she came back?" Lily asked sweetly,

"Why no, I..."

"Just how much do you really know about my sister?"

"Lily!"

"No, let him answer the question!"

"Getting to know your sister is becoming one of the only good things I have in my life at the moment," David answered cautiously.

"Yeah, whatever! Like I believe that!"

"It's true! And your sister thinks the world of you and from what she's told me all you do is criticize her decisions!"

"That's not true!"

"It's true!" Vivian gasped out.

"I'm trying to look after you!"

"With all due respect Miss Charles, Vivian is a grown woman who is free to do what she wants. And she wants to go out with me and I want to go out with her! "

"It makes me happy, Lily. Don't you want me to be happy?"

Lily's expression softened. "Love tends to make people more sad than happy..."

"But I want to believe that I can find happiness. Please let me try," Vivian pleaded.

There was a long pause as Lily considered.

"Loss and pain define us as much as happiness and love, Lily. If I get hurt it's just another part of life..."

"I won't hurt you," David tried to reassure her.

"If you do, I swear I'll kill you," Lily threatened.

"I like that quote about loss and pain defining us," David commented.

"I got it off this insane British sci-fi show that was on the other day. They were trying to save this school from being taken over by aliens," Lily informed him.

"Enchanting," he said as he gazed at her. He meant her face not the sci-fi show.

The moment was ruined by Pigby trying to eat the latest Harry Potter book.

"HEY! SCAT!" yelled David.

"Is that _Olive's_ pig?" Lily spluttered in surprise.

While everyone's attention was on Pigby, Digby knocked Lily's fetching zebra print bag off the counter and removed the pocket watch case with his paw. He then picked the case up with his jaws and fled before he got noticed.

"We should take him back to Olive," Vivian decided. Therefore she also decided that Digby would take the bus back alone.

Digby found the journey back to the Pie Hole flashed by as he imagined how happy everyone would be when the pocket watches were returned.

He trotted back into the back door of the Pie Hole, pocket watch case clutched tightly in his jaws.

"Digby!" Olive exclaimed. "Where's Pigby? And what are you holding?"

But Digby was distracted by his master and best friend sobbing.

"I k-killed her! I can't believe I killed her! How could I...why did I..."

Digby whined in sympathy. He ignored Olive's "Give!" command. He took the pocket watch case straight to Ned, but was careful to keep a safe distance.

"This is..." Ned began.

"The pocket watches!" Olive exclaimed. "I should go call your dad, Mr. Charles and Emerson to tell them they can stop looking now!"

"So," Penny took control. "Here's the last pocket watch."

Ned slowly opened up the case. "Do you really think this will work?" he asked no-one in particular as the last watch was slotted into place.

No-one answered. Something clicked in the pocket watches. Ned's shaking hand reached out to the watch with CC engraved on it. The watch fell from its case, and sure enough underneath it lay a tiny injection. He picked it up with his index finger and thumb.

Olive chose this moment to dash back into the room

"They're on their way back! Did it work?"

"I don't know. Maybe...maybe she should stay dead." Ned said into the silence.

"WHAT?!" Olive yelled.

"She's supposed to be dead and if I bring her back to life...someone else has to die. We've all been so busy thinking about how we could bring her back we forgot about the consequences that would happen if we really did. Anyone in this room could die and I don't know if I can take that risk."

"But Ned, you love her!" Olive objected.

"Yeah, I do but I don't want you to die! If I brought her back it would probably be you or Emerson that died in her place...and I couldn't live with that. Maybe...just maybe she's supposed to stay dead."

The Pie Maker felt his heart splinter and crack as it slowly broke into tiny pieces. The only glue that would put it back together would be Chuck's life.

Emerson burst in the door.

"Did you do it?" he asked, and then spotted Ned hovering with the injection.

"Well, get the hell on with it!"

"Emerson, I can't because then someone else will have to die! Someone with an equal life force which probably equals you or Olive!"

"O.K. So me and Little Big Mouth and everyone else gets on a plane and goes far away and then you do it and because it's a random proximity thing we'll be safe and some stranger can die instead."

"I could do that! I've been wanting a holiday!" Olive piped up.

"That's still not fair on the stranger! He or she could have a wife or a husband and children and a house with cats and a front yard and I'll take all of that away!"

"Or that stranger could be a horrible criminal who beats up little old ladies for money. We don't know."

"Where's my dad and Chuck's dad?" Ned sighed, not knowing what to do.

"Sent them back to the Charles residence to look round there for those damn pocket watches. They should be here soon. I was looking round the street outside."

"Maybe they killed each other," offered Olive.

Right on cue, the two men walked in.

"Charlotte!" Charles called.

"If Pie Maker brings her back someone else has to die," Emerson told them. "So lets get the hell out of here!"

"Couer de Coeurs should be far enough," nodded Ned's father. "I do love you, son. I'm proud of how you use our family gift. Always know that."

"Dad, I...I have to be mad at you before I can forgive you. And hang on just one minute!" Ned protested. "I haven't decided..."

"Yeah, you have! When you woke Dead Girl up before you told her you'd do it again! I heard you! So do it!" Emerson ordered.

And before Ned could stop it, he'd injected Chuck with the substance.

"RUN!" Emerson yelled at Olive, glaring at the Pie Maker. He'd meant when they were in Coeur de Couers, not at that exact moment.

Chuck sat up slowly.

"Did you just touch me?" she asked Ned.

"No. It was the injection . Remember those?" Ned sniffed.

"But you're touching me!" Chuck exclaimed.

The Pie Maker's hand was gripping her wrist. There were 40 seconds to go until someone died. But as the Pie Maker and the girl named Chuck realised that, at long last they could touch, time stopped for them. It ceased to mean anything. Their worlds were only filled with each other and they didn't register the thump as the body of Ned's father hit the floor at the one minute mark.

**A/N I decided to kill off Ned's dad because his character wasn't really going anywhere and I wanted to make him seem like a good guy in the end. Dying so his son could be happy...They could have had a really interesting relationship but it would have been too hard for my tiny mind to comprehend. **


	11. A True Happily Ever After?

**A/N This is the last chapter *is crying happy tears* I hope everyone finds it a satisfying ending. I shall miss writing this fic so much even though sometimes it was so hard I wanted to say "Damn it, I shall just send in Dwight Dixon with a chainsaw and that will be that!" But you, my reviewers have been the ones who kept me writing. So thank you. Thank you times a very big number that I can't be bothered to type. **

**Disclaimer: Me no own. **

3 days, 2 hours and 32 minutes later, the wake at of the funeral was being held at the Pie Hole. Ned's many stress baked pies were now being nibbled by mourners.

Ned thought about how was odd it was to see every single person that had come into his life over the past few months all gathered in the Pie Hole to mourn the death of his father. He found it odder still that _he_ was mourning the death of his father. He had died so Chuck could live and Ned could be happy. But perhaps oddest of all, was that after so many months of not being able to touch Chuck, he was finally holding her hand. Digby sat at his feet, careful not to actually sit _on_ them. They would never touch, but Digby would remain loyal to the end.

Chuck was so happy that she felt sure she'd soon be floating. She had back every single person she loved. The Pie Maker, her father and her mother and her aunt. Plus her best friend, one Olive Snook. Who, at this very moment was feeding pie to Randy. Her father would leave again soon, to resume his travels, and search for a plastic surgeon that could mend his corpse face. But, much to Ned's despair, he would still be back for visits. Ned still trod very warily around him and only fed him chocolate cake.

Emerson Cod, meanwhile, was trying very_, very_ hard not to watch the sickening public displays of affection. This was proving very difficult, as on one side he had Ned and Chuck (the worst) and on the other Olive and Randy. There was also Vivian and David. It was a losing battle. Why was everyone so damn happy at a wake anyway? Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Penny and Simone. Penny was very enthusiastically hugging Bubblegum. Simone was pretending to be cross, but ever since she had begun "training" Penny, she was fine. She caught his eye and came over to him.

"Would you like to take part in a sickening public display of affection?" she asked.

"No!" Emerson stared at her as though she had grown three legs. Simone clicked her fingers. And Emerson found himself kissing her.

"People are like dogs. Give them the right cues and they'll react accordingly," she breathed in his ear.

Penny grinned.

"Daddy's like a dog!" she announced proudly, "And he goes red when Simone kisses him!"

Her ace detective skills were still in perfect working order.

* * *

Olive giggled at her new boyfriend. He was too cute.

"So, let me get this straight. We are going to beat the Pie Hole in this year's Cook Off by hypnotising people with the scent of waffles?"

"Yes."

"God, I love you! You're too cute!"

"Cuter than Pie Maker?"

"Oh, yeah. Chuck can have him. He's just a too tall guy with weird issues now."

"What weird issues?"

"Oh, that's a secret."

Olive Snook now knew the art of secret keeping. She would not run away to a nunnery in order to keep secrets. She told all her secrets to Pigby now. He was a very good listener. And now knew a lot of songs from the orchestra in Olive's heart.

There was drink with alcohol in it, therefore Lily was happy. Vivian was with David, therefore she was happy. Lily still found happiness strange, but a good kind of strange. She and her sister were devising new routines for their synchronised swimming careers. There would be another tour soon. Lily was letting David come. The sisters were once again moving along in almost perfect sisterly harmony.

Vivian had fallen in love. Love made her dizzy and dreamy and it suited her. It did not suit Lily, but Lily did not like change, even if it was for the better. They had come to a compromise about David and things had improved times seventeen. She was with David now, just talking. It felt good to talk to someone other than her sister. And he made her feel special.

Maurice and Ralston were perhaps the most devastated about their father's death. They were not cross with Ned, just in shock. But they would soon have plenty to be happy about-their magic show was rising in popularity and soon they would become very rich. Ned and his friends would have the best seats. True love was something they had not yet found and had to look forward to.

* * *

"Ned...I can't believe this is real. It's like a fairy tale come to life," Chuck grinned.

"Is this the bit where we all live happily ever after?"

"I don't know. We still have normal problems. The non-normal ones just overshadowed them."

"I think this is a happily ever after in lots of ways, we just have to let ourselves have other happily ever afters when we solve all the normal people things. There's no rule that says we can't have more than one happily ever after, right? And I just want you to know that...my happily ever after will always be with you."

"And mine will always be with you, my handsome prince. Kiss me!"

And so he kissed her and the story of Pushing Daisies should really end here. Except...

"Hey, Pie Boy, Pie Girl! I got a new case today. One Fred McFred, died after a bucket of scrap metal mysteriously fell on his head. You in?" Emerson called.

"Can I play, can I play?" Olive yelped, jumping on the counter.

Ned looked at Chuck.

"I'm sure he'll have lots of last wishes and requests for us to carry out."

"Do we really want to spoil our happy ending with a trip to the morgue?"

"This ain't a happy ending until I get paid!" announced Emerson.

And so the Pie Maker and the girl named Chuck set off with one Emerson Cod, private detective and one Olive Snook, waitress and Itty Bitty, to give someone else a happily ever after.

**A/N Aha, I just wanted Emerson and Olive in there at the end. Sorry if it's weird...**


End file.
